WASHINGTON: The US navy carried out a retaliatory strike in Baghdad on Thursday (Jan 4) that killed a militia chief it blames for latest assaults on US personnel, a US official instructed Reuters.
Iraqi police sources and witnesses stated a drone fired at the very least two rockets in jap Baghdad at a facility utilized by the Iraqi militia group al-Nujaba’a.
Police and militia sources stated the rockets hit a automobile contained in the Nujaba’a headquarters and killed 4 folks, together with a neighborhood group commander and one in every of his aides. Well being sources confirmed the loss of life toll.
The USmilitary has come underneath assault at the very least 100 occasions in Iraq and Syria for the reason that Israel-Hamas war started in October, often with a mixture of rockets and one-way assault drones.
America has 2,500 troops deployed in Iraq and 900 in neighbouring Syria in a bid to forestall a resurgence of Islamic State militants.
“The Iraqi armed forces maintain the worldwide coalition forces liable for this unjustified assault on an Iraqi safety entity,” the prime minister’s navy spokesman stated, referring to Thursday’s strike.
The assertion described the militia group as an Iraqi power working with the authorisation of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.
The US official stated the strike hit the automobile with the intention of killing the militia chief and that was completed.
Video footage printed by pro-militia web sites confirmed a destroyed automobile in flames. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the authenticity of the footage.
Iran-aligned teams in Iraq and Syria oppose Israel’s marketing campaign in Gaza and maintain the US partly accountable.
Prime Minister Al-Sudani has restricted management over some Iran-backed factions, whose assist he wanted to win energy a 12 months in the past and who now kind a robust bloc in his governing coalition.
Iraqi safety sources stated they’d no additional element on who might need carried out the strike pending a authorities investigation.
Iraqi militia commanders accused the US of finishing up the assault and threatened to retaliate.
“We are going to retaliate and make the Individuals remorse finishing up this aggression,” Abu Aqeel al-Moussawi, a neighborhood Iraqi militia commander, stated.
Final month, the US carried out retaliatory air strikes in Iraq after a drone assault by Iran-aligned militants that left one US service member in important situation and wounded two others.
